Tag Archives: David Cameron

Prime Minister David Cameron and MEP Nigel Farage both made their individual cases for a ‘remain’ or ‘out’ respectively for the upcoming European Referendum in a live television ‘debate’ last night.

I say ‘debate’ as both men never shared the stage or traded questions.

Given the way in which Britain’s membership to the European Union informs immigration policy, and how that in turn could effect the movement of Jihadists within Europe, I’ve often been asked which way I will be voting on June 23rd.

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The Conservative Conference is currently taking place in my home city of Manchester. Aside from it playing havoc with my morning commute, David Cameron has had some things of note to say about extremism and religious fundamentalism. There’s a more detailed summary over at The Telegraph, but I thought I’d post some of the paper’s highlights here.

On Jeremy Corbyn

Cameron says, of Corbyn:

“My friends, we cannot let that man inflict his security-threatening, terrorist-sympathising, Britain-hating ideology on the country we love”

Ouch

He also chastises Corbyn for describing the death of Bin Laden as a ‘tragedy’. Full context of that can be found here.

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Maajid Nawaz (@MaajidNawaz) of The Quilliam Foundation joins me on The #GSPodcast this week. We’ll be discussing the hand he had in helping Prime Minister David Cameron prepare his latest speech on tackling Islamist extremism. We also delve into the reasons young Brits are taken in by the Islamist narrative, and what we can do about it. As well as touching on race relations and the left, Maajid will also be sharing some details of his upcoming book collaboration with Sam Harris.

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This week on Taking The Myth, Stephen Knight and A Scotsman Abroad discuss the big topics with guest callers: The spate of Islamist terror attacks in recent days and the ‘nothing to do with Islam’ brigade. We also talk about the latest episode in the CJ Werleman saga, answer your questions and have a disagreement about religious freedom plus much more!

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Alastair Campbell famously said of Tony Blair’s labour government: “we don’t do god” and this sentiment seemed to summarise British politics at large, happily. Unlike our American cousins, elected officials stating their religious convictions too loudly are likely to end up counting sniggers rather than votes.

Yet, David Cameron is committed to rubbing me up the wrong way on pretty much everything he has to say concerning religion. There’s the constant pissing on our shoes and claiming it’s not Islam, to encouraging Christians to be more evangelical and divisively asserting we are a Christian country. This brings us to his Christmas message which includes some patronising spiel about the importance of ‘Christian Values1’.

David Cameron has reiterated his commitment to “Christian values” in his Christmas message to the UK.

The Prime Minister said Britain should be proud of “giving, sharing and taking care of others” at home and abroad.

He also praised the work of the British military, aid workers and medical volunteers abroad. He said: “Among the joyous celebrations we will reflect on those very Christian values of giving, sharing and taking care of others”

You see – giving, sharing and taking care of others are “very Christian values”, and not simply human values. These are all perfectly commendable values of course, worth encouraging – but why does the Prime Minister of The UK feel it necessary to place them in such an exclusionary and divisive context? This is the moment where many would suspect it’s not religious sincerity on Cameron’s part, but rather an attempt to keep the Christian vote onside.

I look forward to the day when our leaders are unafraid to champion compassion, good will and empathy towards our fellow creatures without tribal rhetoric or so much as a nod towards a defunct superstition. These values aren’t Christian, they’re human. They’re no-one’s to own – but everyone’s to share. Merry Christmas.

You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.